The Litmus Test
“He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; then it was well. Is not that what it means to know Me?” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 22:16 NASB
To know Me – Do you know God? Ah, before you answer, perhaps you might consider God’s reply to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is distraught over the condition of Israel, particularly in light of the death of Josiah, presumed to be the Messiah. God responds to Jeremiah with a rather startling decree. What does it mean to know YHVH? It means to plead the cause of the afflicted and needy. “Wait! Are you telling me that God doesn’t expect me to have the right theology, to say the right prayers, to have a proper religious attitude?” It would seem so. How do I know if I know God? All I have to do is look at my personal involvement in upholding the afflicted and needy. By the way, that’s personal involvement, not proxy check-writing, “let the missionaries do it,” involvement. How are you getting your hands dirty in the work of God’s concern for the afflicted and needy? Maybe I could ask it this way: we started a project for the abandoned children of the prostitutes in Jakarta. It’s called “Children Under the Bridge.” It is the direct effort of a woman who was kidnapped into sex slavery. The invitation was sent to 935 readers. To date, 36 have offered to help. The 4% rule. What do you think God would say about this?
Oh, of course, I know that you may have other really needy projects that you are helping directly. That’s wonderful. This is not a criticism. It is a challenge for you to look at what you are actually doing. If all 935 readers provided only $1 a month to the “Children Under the Bridge,” the amount of support would grow by 30 percent. $1.00!!
Lau comments: “man’s service of God is measured by his social conduct.”[1] This is amazing! Is there any other religion that measures godly devotion in terms of social conduct? All the rest focus on spiritual matters, those actions of the soul that have no direct outward evaluation. But not the worship of YHVH, God of Israel. You and I have a very simple, straightforward measure of how we know YHVH. We take care of others! We act with social responsibility. We follow the Golden Rule.
Forget all the theological posturing. Forget the spires, the prayer books, the hymns, the band and the sermons. Forget the “gathering together” to make ourselves feel religious. If we are neglecting this, we don’t know God! Oh, we might read the Bible, pray and perform religious duties, but according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, we are far from the God who cares for the afflicted and needy.
So what are you going to do about this?
Topical Index: to know Me, social responsibility, afflicted, needy, Jeremiah 22:16
[1] Benyamin Lau, Jeremiah: The Fate of a Prophet, p. 83.
Skip,
Interesting that in the first paragraph you explain that we must have, “personal involvement, not proxy check writing”, then by the end of the same paragraph, you ask us to proxy check write for the cause in Jakarta.
I agree with you that we appease ourselves by writing the checks (proxy check writing), but if that is all we are doing, we are not getting personally involved — and as you stated, we don’t know YHVH. Is there anything wrong with sending a check to those in need? No. But if that is all we are doing, then there is a problem. How are we getting personally involved with those in our corner of the world we live in?
Hmmm…of course, I am mainly scolding myself. This is something I have struggled with for many years. I need to keep working on it.
That check writing can also be viewed as the outer edges of the field that were not to be harvested and left for the needy, or the remnant of the crop that is left after the first harvesting (where Ruth followed). The 4% rule is not an indication of lack of success…it is an indication of success! Unless it is the same 4% that gives all the time. Perhaps another 4% is giving to the neighbor next door, or another 4% to the relative that is in need, or still providing for their children who can’t afford to live on their own their city that has high rent rates, or ….
I have sat in the largest church in San Diego that was succeeding in raising 12 million dollars in one year for new venue creation as they ‘prayed for’ a handful of people who were out of work and raised their hands in response to a request for prayer during the ‘Tithe’ offering prayer centered on that 12 million dollars. THAT WAS 0% TO ME!
For those unemployed church members where successful people coughed up $100,000 each with no problem (and a tax write off) there was no assistance; which means those blessed people over in Jakarta are maybe not doing so bad as your next door neighbor.
It is a matter of personal involvement, and that might be at the end of a pen.
I recently was able to see a review buy Barnum on the percentage Christians and tithing ,it was to say the least upsetting sad reflection of the whole reality of what some might call Christianity. If 100%of people who call themselves Christians would give $1 weekly look at the total! Good Wipeout Hunter in any given Nation overnight. We should not be overtaken by the fault of others but we should do our best on our own personal level to help the Widow the orphan and those who are oppressed.
The review was by the Barna group I am spelling incorrect.
This is something that has hit me hard as of late. Somehow the simplest messages, the ones that you learn in kindergarten are the hardest ones.
“Personal involvement” to me means that I consider every penny, as well as every opportunity, knowledge, time, place, happy or truthful thought, contact with others – new face or treasured family or friend – to be shared with someone. This is the natural side effect of joy. Joy gets to give. Joy is the side effect of two substances rubbing together. It is the spark that lights the next fire.
If the only measure, by Hebrew standards, anyway, of if anything was ever truly ‘ours’ a measure of if it was ours enough to give away or pass on, we would be sharing half of every bite that went into our mouths. We would be viewing everything in every minute in terms of how fast we could turn it around and make somebody else happy with it. Substance and opportunity are chances for relationship. They are the raw material, but if we think that just accumulating the raw material is what life is all about, we will end up sitting on a big pile of flour when we could have baked a cake. Shared crusts are sweeter, but they are also quite different than the crust I eat alone. Somehow the loaves and fishes transform in the open hand into manna from heaven.
Not just money; not just food; but “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” do we live, but when I go to read those words, most of them have to do with telling me how to pass it on. Manna that gets put in a barrel over night, like the talent that got buried, or the treasures that got “laid up” in the barns that got built for them, sours. We can only have our cake and eat it too, if it is a shared one. Somehow, this seems to be a principle learned much better at the bottom than at the top. People who have next to nothing are actively looking for ways to increase what they have, for without that increase, they will starve or die. They seem to rapidly be able to learn that it is always more if you share; in fact, if you don’t, you don’t last long in the land of never enough. If you want to look at percentages of people who are in a place where they are best able to discover the bottom principle of Torah, look to the “poor you have with you”. I have thought for a long time that poverty is the single best way to learn love. This is the real reason the poor are there, to teach the rest of us, as well as give us a real opportunity. We need both from them. State welfare is nefarious in that it separates and stratifies what should have been homogenous. The principles of almsgiving and field gleaning are lost, and both parties are the poorer for it.
Miss Hayes Hallelujah Joe is the innermost feeling as I understand it the Lord himself gives us when we respond through his salvation that he has given us not that your example is incorrect but it is my opinion and it is this Joy that should be our only source of inspiration and strength we get to live because he gave us life are we really living my question? It is true we are given many opportunities by means of other people . Encouragement is a gift and when it is used correctly many people do many good things. Good character is also an example to be encouraged to give a way. For the child Chelsea called peacemakers making peace is a calling it can be formulated in many ways when we are inspired through His Spirit. Closing. thought my joy is that My people know My voice.
My apologies spell check was out of whack rewrite: Joy is the innermost feeling. Also your interpretation f joy is definitely also correct. Not read and put into context a second time.
Dear Brett, what is salvation? Well, to ask that is to ask what is death? Fracture from relationship. Salvation must mean then the restoration of relationship. I have been meditating a lot on what I am praying for when I pray for the salvation of, say, my children. What I am really praying for is relationship. Salvation is just simply relationship extended in a continuum through eternity. And it starts now. So if what you say is correct about joy in that it is a response to salvation, what you are really saying to me is that joy happens whenever we connect with others, for that connection IS life, and joy tells us when we have life. Joy is a life/salvation litmus test. Constant joy means that we are connected all the time, then. Salvation is just a fancy word for relationship, and if we expect that we can get away with excluding ourselves from our full obligations of relationship and the forgiveness that makes it possible with others and yet, somehow, mysteriously, be ‘saved’ then we don’t know what we are talking about.
Joy lets me know, minute by minute, if I am allowing salvation (relationship) to be true for me in any given minute. Joy also lets others know, too. Joy is very hard to hide, and it is as contagious as a shared breath of air straight from heaven.
Brett and Laurita
Salvation is Yeshua, Christ is the power and wisdom we receive when part of the body bringing about redemption or solutions to others. Unfortunately some in need never find this outcome but find other comfort through the input.
Yeshua explained that all is possible when we have true faith. Seek first and rest will be added a guarantee irrespective of religious conviction or goal we are chasing…
What is kingdom I find Paul’s explanation very revealing…
Joy, peace and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. The truth revealed unto us, when we do it somehow heaven meets up with us and even overtakes us…
Just today while doing a simple checking task of a contractor’s work, we ended up discussing this topic in the concerns of the individual. And he acknowledged that there is more joy in helping others than waiting for others to help. God loves an uplifting and supporting donor rather than just a donor.
A widow and a wealthy man make an offer. Which did Yeshua show to be the greatest. It is not what you give or do but rather to which extent.
Try a simple thing a congregational member needs a pair of shoes. Ask every one present that has more than $10 in the pocket to donate but 50 cents on their way out. Will you have enough to buy the pair of shoes???
Now ask the same congregation to contribute to a joint meal at say $10 per person. What is the response, what will we get…
Who do you think has peace and joy or righteousness in their attributes. I think this is what Skip needs us to acknowledge.
I find peace the deeper I dig to help others uplift themselves, I find no peace in just donating or attending a gathering, or even burdening myself to just get others out of their ditch, these make me contributors and supporters not participants.
And on His right hand he said gather those that did feed, clothe and or visit. Not those that donated or supported or crabbed the arm lifted out all these are good deeds but are they permanent solutions…
Skip what does it benefit when we help those not in our immediate proximity? But what is the benefit when we help those in our immediate proximity? Given the left hand may never know what the right hand is doing…
Recently Skip offered a series of lectures around Luzzato’s (?) Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright. I purchased the series and listened to the first three lectures and stopped to await my purchase of the book itself to follow with the lectures. Please consider purchasing this series by Skip…it is mind blowing! and gives some (a lot of) insight to the underlying motivation of this topic we are discussing and the communal role.
I believe it was posted in a ‘Today’s Word’ two weeks ago. Maybe Skip will repost it here.
I just started it also, Richard. It is enlightening, challenging, stark and a little frightening. Frightening in a good way that has already started to shake my presumed firm foundations. Not so firm, I’m afraid! I ditto your challenge to listen to this series.
I actually love the idea of “sending” or being “sent” either way the outcome is for the advancement of the Kingdom and Yeshua getting His full reward. Solomon had people do the work, Paul had supporters, it is like a river flowing in one direction and yet it always comes back in some multiplied way! Blessings have a supernatural ability to accomplish amazing and life giving outcomes. Compared to unrighteous gain which brings an early death.
I am shielded from any shame or guilt when it comes to money- really wonderful how so many people can share in a blessing. God is good
Abigail I love your enthusiasm it is Spirit given I sense it in your words from the new heart he has given you. May you always be given and overcoming spirit that will defeat obstacles of hatred and sin around you and in you may you always find agreement with the spirit of God and his word. people who criticize others who are Godly may do it for their own purposes check their spirit discern what is the will of God love never fails many times wolves in sheep’s clothing arise be aware of them God’s call is on your life and being called as the apostles were they find others and leave them to the word of God and his . Spirit be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might for you are called to overcome for this purpose so the kingdom of God will increase with his other servants and Friends or he tells his secrets to His prophets and with these secrets is the abundance of life over death so be Overcomers in this life for he has overcome. Abigail I had to let that out be courageous and be of good courage.
Thank you.
Hi Skip,
It seems the only options for donating to children under the bridge on your website are $20 monthly or a one off donation. Can you change it so I can give a different monthly amount?
Regards,
Karmel
I will look into this. You can always send to At God’s Table and designate it for “Children Under”
Just some clarification: included in that 4% is a small group of people in our congregation who sent a love offering through our ministry when our pastor told us about “The Children Under the Bridge”.
Yes, thanks so much